My mom came to visit last weekend and we had a blast. Conveniently, we went to the New York Botanical Garden’s annual orchid show, so I have tons of pictures to post for this prompt! Feel free to skip the writing and look at the pictures.

My mom arrived on Thursday afternoon and Ubered to my boss’ house and then we took Uber back down to my house. We went on a walk around my block since it was SO nice out. I made pasta for dinner and we had some wine and watched Netflix. My mom said she had read about the new show Bloodline and wanted to check it out. It was so good that we wound up watching the entire first season over the weekend! If you need something new to watch and like crime shows, I highly recommend it!

Friday morning we woke up and decided to go downtown. It was rainy, but warm which was good. We went to Grand Central Station first. It’s such a cool place because the city has made sure to keep a majority of the original architecture and design elements! We walked through the huge market they have in the station, shopped around a bit, got a Starbucks, and then we decided to walk toward Central Park. We found a Hofbrauhaus and then happened to walk by St. Patrick’s! It was Good Friday, so there was a 3 hour Mass happening. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that crowded so we walked around inside and found a seat on an aisle. It just so happens we sat next to a confessional and I realized they were actually taking confession. It’s been 9 months since I’ve been so I decided to man up and go. I was so nervous because I’ve only ever given confession to one priest and he didn’t ever make me go through the whole formal process. I went to RCIA classes and they explained what we are supposed to do, but I’ve never completed the whole thing-he would just give absolution after you told him your confession. So, before I went in I pulled up the steps and prayers online and dimmed my phone. It was really loud because of the Mass and crowd that I could barely hear the priest. I gave my confession and he got on to me for not going to Mass and confession regularly. My confessor in Texas did face-to-face confession, but this was in a real confessional with a screen. It was really cool to go to a Mass and go to confession at St. Patrick’s. He told me my penance and told me to say an Act of Contrition. I froze because I’ve never had to do that so I looked it up on my phone and was SO nervous, but once I finished all that we left and kept walking.

We ultimately decided to walk to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We stopped at Saks Fifth Avenue and window shopped and continued on our way. We were going to go to the rooftop bar at the Met to eat, but it turns out it is closed until May. Neither my mom or I had ever been to the Met, so it was pretty overwhelming. IT IS HUGE. The tickets aren’t outrageous and they do offer student discounts. We checked out the photography exhibit, European art, ancient Greek and Roman art, an Egyptian temple, ceramics exhibit, glass exhibit, some jewelry, and wanted to look a the costume exhibit, but it was closed. It was so much fun! There was a portion of the photography exhibit about the portrayal of Nazis in pop culture that was really neat. The European painting section was obviously epic, but too big to see everything. I will definitely have to go back and check out each individual section in more detail! Hopefully I can go a few times this summer and check out the rooftop bar!

I could have stayed in there for hours and hours, but our feet were starting to hurt and we hadn’t eaten so we left. I got some souvenirs in the gift shop and then we found a nearby Colombian restaurant and decided to check it out. La Dolce Vida near 83rd and Lexington was SO good! We each got a soup and small empanada and a glass of wine. I’d never had Colombian food and it was amazing! I got this chicken soup with capers, white rice, and avocado. The small empanadas were super small, but delicious no less. My mom had her fill of the subway, so we Ubered home. We just chilled the rest of the night and watched Bloodline!

Saturday we stayed around my apartment and then got ready and Ubered to Arthur Avenue, Little Italy in the Bronx. We didn’t really have a plan so we just walked around for a few hours. We went to an Italian bakery and had coffee and pastries, then we walked to Mt. Carmel church. We went inside and took some pictures. There were nuns in there decorating for Easter, but it was still really pretty. The church looks exactly like churches in Italy, so I wanted my mom to see it! After the church we did some more walking. We went the wrong way and wound up on this scary ass street. My mom thought we were going to get mugged because these two guys followed us for like a block. She got SO mad at me! After that, we found our way back to Little Italy and went to this big market they have down there. It was amazing! They have vegetables, fruit, meats, cheeses, cigars, shirts, and a beer garden! My mom and I stopped at the beer garden to kill some time. We shared a flight and then each got a beer and then split another.

My mom loves orchids so my special plan for the weekend was to take her to the orchid show at the NYBG! They have the orchid show every year for a few weeks, but they also have orchid evenings on the weekends. I got us two tickets for Saturday night. We left Little Italy and Ubered over to the NYBG. We got there at sunset which was perfect. We got to see the huge glass rotunda of the pavilion with the sun reflecting off of it and then when we got inside everything was glowing.

They had reggaeton and salsa music playing all over and we also got a voucher for a free cocktail. They had lavender lemonade with gin and it was so good! We walked around the entire show and had a couple of cocktails and decided to check out the gift shop. I bought my mom some gifts because she love orchids and dragonflies so she was in heaven!

We Ubered back and the driver tried to rip us off, but I obviously knew what he was doing when he drove past my place and kept going. I confronted him and then left a review on Uber and they gave us back the amount he charged for his little detour. By the way, Uber is awesome. We had transportation all weekend and it was quick, reliable, and relatively cheap!

Easter was pretty chill. We went to brunch down by my school and then went to the Angelika theater and saw Still Alice. The movie was really good. It was sad because I could relate on a new level due to my job and family history, but it was really realistic and a great film all together.

My mom left Monday and I had class that evening. I have a question, does anyone ever really enjoy “constructive” criticism? I had to present part of a project to my class and my professor hated it. I feel like as an adult you’re supposed to be able to take criticism, but I hateee it.

Last night I watched that new Going Clear documentary on HBO and it was SO scary. I plan on writing a blog about it, but I’m a little scared…I don’t want any crazy people going HAM on me online!

Anyway, enjoy some pictures of flowers and art! Talk to you next week!

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4 thoughts on “Spring has sprung in the Bronx!”

Did you just say, “feel free to skip the writing” on Write or Die Wednesday!? Haha 🙂

It sounds like you and your mom had a great time together. I keep hoping and praying that my girls go to college at some awesome place so I can go visit, cause you know, it’s all about me. lol

So your confession experience seems a bit scary. Did he really get on you about not going to mass or confession in a long time? The Pope needs to have a talk with him about that. Haha. That’s why some people never go back to the church, man!

When Mel and I got convalidated in the church in 2013 we had to go to confession, and I hadn’t been since I was a junior in high school! So of course, I had to include stuff I did between the ages of 16-31…which was no bueno. I was so self-conscious thinking that he would think I did all of those things recently, but most of the bad stuff was between the ages of 16-19.

The Met sounds like something I would enjoy a ton. Little Italy too, because wine and carbs 🙂

I am sure you’re girls will! That will be so fun! Haha, yeah, when he found out I hadn’t been to confession in 9 months he said I need to get a calendar and keep better track of my time LOL! To be fair is was probably pretty annoyed to be sitting in a dark box during a three hour mass, but it wrecked my nerves. I am SO glad I converted after I was a teen, hahaha! I converted 3 years ago and since I wasn’t baptized catholic I got to start with a clean slate and didn’t have to tell any of my sins from adolescence! You are my hero-it makes me SO nervous already, I can’t imagine telling childhood stuff, lol! If you are ever up here you’ll definitely have to check out the Met, it is amazing! 😉